Cinderella
by Randomonium
Summary: SONGFIC Ron watches his daughter grow up, and remember's dancing with his little princess.


**Cinderella**

Ron treasured his daughter, little Rose. She was his princess, his Cinderella. Hermione had insisted the children be read muggle fairytales as well as the wizarding ones, saying that there weren't enough princess stories in Beedle the Bard's tales. Ron didn't understand her logic, but he felt that she knew best. And so he had listened to all the stories as Hermione read them, and devoured them as he read them to Rose himself. He'd even watched them, fascinated, when they visited Hermione's parents. And while he'd never admit it to anyone, ever, he loved the story of Cinderella.

Rose loved her princess dresses. Her Granny Granger made her all kinds of dress up clothes- princess dresses, fairy dresses, everything. But she loved the princess dresses the most, and wore them most of the time, with her little plastic heels.

_She spins and she sways to whatever song plays_

_Without a care in the world_

Ron knew his daughter loved to dance. There was always music playing in the house and she was almost spinning and swaying around the room, lost in the music, a slight figure in delicately coloured satins. He sometimes just sat and watched her, watched his little princess dance with thin air, curtseying and dancing a childish clumsy waltz. He wanted her to stay like that forever, wanted her to stay his little girl, his little princess.

_And I'm sitting here wearing the weight of world on my shoulders_

_It's been a long day and there's still work to do_

Even now, as he glanced up tiredly from his notes on the case he was working on at the Auror office, she caught his eye like a fluid jewel. It was a blue dress tonight, her Cinderella dress, barefoot. He allowed himself to watch her, even though he knew he still had a lot of work to do. He couldn't help himself.

_She's pulling at me saying 'Dad I need you_

_There's a ball at the castle and I've been invited_

_And I need to practice my dancin', Oh please, daddy, please.'_

Rose saw him watching and ran over. 'Daddy, dance with me,' she pleaded.

'Sweetheart, Daddy's busy,' he told her regretfully.

'Please, daddy, please. I need to practice,' she begged, tugging at his sleeve.

'What do you need to practice for, love?' Ron asked.

'I've been invited to a ball at the castle, and I need to practice. Please, daddy,' Rose begged.

Ron smiled and kissed her on the forehead. 'Since you put it that way, of course.' He stood up and drew his wand, drawing a simple tiara in the air, and taking the finished product, he settled it gently in his daughter's hair.

'Every princess needs a tiara,' he told her, and took her hand, leading her into the middle of the room. He dropped her hand and faced her, and, with a small smile on his face, bowed deeply. Rose giggled and gave a curtsey.

'Come here, princess,' he murmured, and lifted her up, placing her feet on his feet, and then held her hands and swayed to the music.

_So I will dance with Cinderella while she is here in my arms_

_Cause I know something the prince never knew_

_Oh I will dance with Cinderella, I don't want to miss even one song_

_Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight and she'll be gone_

He danced with her for a while, and lifted her up and spun her around, knowing that it wouldn't last forever, that she was growing up, very quickly it seemed, and he wanted to make the most of every moment he had with her, because he knew that at some point, one day, maybe not too far in the future, he would have to let her go.

_She say's he's a nice guy and I'd be impressed_

_She wants to know if I approve of the dress_

'I don't know if I like the idea of you going to a dance with a boy,' Ron told Rose, in a slightly disgruntled tone of voice.

Rose laughed. 'Dad, I'm seventeen. I'm of age. And it's the Yule Ball.'

'How is the Triwizard Tournament going, anyway? I remember when it was held when I was at school,' Ron said, slightly wistfully.

'Well, Hogwarts is in the lead, but Beauxbaton is only just behind. No one's gotten hurt, though, which is good,' Rose commented.

'So you're only home for these few days,' Ron remarked.

'I needed a dress. I also wanted you to see it,' Rose said, 'Stand back, I'm coming out.'

Ron backed away from her bedroom door, as it opened and his daughter stepped out. His heart ached as he thought back to her spinning around in her princess dresses. This dress was also blue, a vibrant blue, with white detailing swirling around her ankles. She smiled at him and gave a little spin.

'What do you think?' she asked eagerly.

'I think you look way too beautiful for any boy to see you,' Ron replied.

She shook her head at him. 'Dad, the guy I'm going with is a really nice guy. He really is. He's a perfect gentleman. You'd be impressed with how chivalrous he is,' she told him, smiling.

'So what's his name?' he asked casually.

She laughed. 'I'm not telling you. You'll do something ridiculous and overprotective.'

'I would not!' Ron exclaimed.

She raised an eyebrow at him, so much like her mother.

'Okay, maybe I would,' he chuckled, having the decency to look sheepish.

_She says 'Dad, the prom is just one week away_

_And I need to practice my dancin', oh please, daddy, please.'_

'Dad, its next week, and we're going back to Hogwarts in two days,' Rose said slowly.

'I know,' Ron replied, looking at his daughter, realizing just how much she'd grown. He smiled at her. 'My princess is finally getting to go to her ball.'

Rose giggled, and tilted her head. 'I'm not used to dancing in a dress this long,' she remarked, 'Help me practice?'

Ron grinned in reply, stood up straight, and bowed.

Rose curtseyed as she took his outstretched hand, and he whirled her down the hall, laughing. They danced into the lounge, dancing to a tune Ron was singing.

_So I will dance with Cinderella while she is here in my arms_

_Cause I know something the prince never knew_

_Oh I will dance with Cinderella, I don't want to miss even one song_

_Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight and she'll be gone_

_She will be gone_

Hugo looked up from the couch and raised an eyebrow. 'What are you two nutters doing?' he asked.

Ron came to a stop, laughing. 'Oh, I'm getting too old for this,' he wheezed, leaning against the back of the couch. He leant over and gave Hugo a pat on the shoulder. 'Hugo, why don't you dance with your sister?'

'Dance?' Hugo repeated skeptically.

'For the Yule Ball. I'm practicing. C'mon, Hugo,' Rose wheedled, holding out a hand to her brother. 'Lisa will be ever so impressed if you can dance.'

'You think so?' Hugo asked, considering it.

'Oh, I know so,' Rose reassured him, 'Come, I'll teach you to dance.'

Ron laughed as he watched his daughter slowly teach his son the steps.

_But she came home today with a ring on her hand_

_just glowin' and tellin' us all they had planned_

'Engaged?' Ron repeated, 'To Scorpius Malfoy?'

'Ron, you like him well enough,' Hermione laughed.

'I tolerate him,' Ron corrected her.

'You said he was the best guy I've dated,' Rose reminded him, grinning.

'But… My daughter, a Malfoy.' Ron considered this as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. 'Wouldn't he rather take your name?'

Rose and Hermione laughed.

'Because the world needs more Weasleys,' Hermione remarked ironically.

'Certainly more than it needs more Malfoys,' Ron replied.

'Dad, come on,' Rose laughed.

'I suppose he did get you a nice ring,' Ron said grudgingly.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

'We're both very happy for you,' she told her daughter. Rose giggled.

'I know,' she replied.

'So where's the wedding to be?' Hermione asked.

'Well, the Manor has the most beautiful grounds, and Astoria's really lightened the place up since the war,' Rose told her mother.

Ron looked at his daughter as she chattered excitedly about all that she and her… fiancé had planned, and admitted to himself that she looked as happy as he'd ever seen her. He recognized that she was in love, practically glowing with it.

_She says 'Dad, the wedding's still six months away_

_And I need to practice my dancin', oh please, daddy, please.'_

'Dad?' Rose said quietly later that evening, standing in the doorway of his room, as he stood staring out the window. He turned and smiled at her.

'Yes, love?' he replied.

'Do you really have a problem with me marrying Scorpius?' she asked timidly, crossing the room slowly.

Ron chuckled. 'I'd have a problem with you marrying anyone, Princess,' he told her, and shrugged. 'I suppose Scorpius is someone I won't absolutely dread giving you to, no matter how much I dislike his last name.'

Rose smiled beautifully, and tilted her head.

'So, the wedding's still six months away,' she said slowly, 'but… I need to practice my dancing for that first dance.'

Ron inclined his head, allowing her to ask, as she always had.

'Daddy,' Rose said, a little shyly, as she had never been, 'Will you dance with me?'

Ron smiled. 'I would love to, Princess.'

Rose sunk into a low curtsey as Ron bent into a deep stately bow, before he took his daughter into his arms, and the two began to dance slowly to the sound of silence.

_So I will dance with Cinderella while she is here in my arms_

_Cause I know something the prince never knew_

_Oh I will dance with Cinderella, I don't want to miss even one song_

_Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight and she'll be gone_

As Ron looked at the woman in the pale blue robes he was dancing with, he was transported back seventeen years, to when he swung a six year old in a princess dress around the room.

His little princess had grown up, and as he held her as they swayed he knew that the midnight bells would soon ring and he had to let her go.

But for now, he danced with his Cinderella.

Six months later, Ron walked his daughter down the aisle and handed her to Scorpius Malfoy, and watched her promise to love him forever.

He stood as his wife wept and congratulated the two, and his mother, and father, and best friend, and sister, and school enemy, and then it was his turn.

'Take care of my daughter,' he told the groom.

'Oh, I will, sir,' Scorpius replied, grinning widely and barely able to tear his eyes away from his bride. He did, to look his new father-in-law in the eye as he held out his hand for a handshake. 'Thank you,' he said.

Ron bowed his head in acknowledgement, than turned to his daughter, resplendent in white, a little pendant of a glass slipper he'd given her before the ceremony hanging around her neck.

His eyes were shining as he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly for a few minutes, as the couple's first dance was announced.

'I love you,' he said gruffly.

'I love you too, Daddy,' Rose whispered, choked up.

Ron stood back. He looked at her for a couple seconds, then took her hand and put it into Scorpius'.

'It's time for your happily ever after, Princess,' he told her.

Rose gave him a watery smile before she turned her attention to her husband, and Ron thought she had never looked more like royalty than at that moment, flushed with happiness.

And Ron watched as his Cinderella danced with her prince.

-fin-

**A/N: The song is 'Cinderella' by Steven Curtis Chapman, and I heard it when I went to go see my sister's dance school's show, which was fairly average, you know, choreography-wise anyway, but the dance to this song… So it started with a father sitting on a chair with his laptop and his daughter comes onstage in a princess dress and tugs at his arms and he stands up and bows to her and puts her on his feet and dances. And I was in tears by the time the chorus first played. Then there were two girls with their fathers and then an older girl with her father and then they all danced together and I'm a little blurry on the specifics because I was crying too much to actually watch properly, which is weird, because I don't cry that easily, and it was just really touching, and I'm wiping my eyes and my mom's going 'your make-up!' and I'm thinking 'I am so glad I'm wearing turquoise eyeliner and not black eyeliner' so it wasn't too much of a mess. I wasn't the only one crying. I think a lot of the audience was in tears. It's a beautiful song. Although at the end of the dance it was quite funny because each of the girls ran offstage after their father had slipped off one of their shoes and the one girl's shoe didn't come off, so it got tossed to the dad from the wings. I would have laughed, but I was still crying. I felt vaguely ridiculous.**

**But then I just wanted to write a songfic for it, so here it is, and I just felt Ron and Rose would fit so well, especially when I remembered Ron's reaction to hearing about Cinderella ('What's that, an illness?') and I could just imagine Hermione reading her children the stories she grew up with as well as the wizarding ones. I just felt it fit so well.**

**And RoseScorpius, obviously.**

**And I wish that it weren't only little girls that could get away with wearing princess/ fairy dresses out and about, because I'm a Big girl now =P Just finished school, which is AWESOME. Okay, so I finished like… two weeks tomorrow ago. But still. You know what though, if I can get my mom to make me pretty dresses like that, fairy dresses, I will totally wear them in public. Yeah. Who's with me? =P**

**I don't know when or how I'm going to post this because the internet café's computer gave my ipod a virus so I am not a F-udge plugging it in there again, and I don't have internet at home, and since I've left school, I don't have the boarding school's internet anymore. SO this might be problematic for my online life. Anyway, if you're reading this, I've sorted it out so it's all good.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and I would love to know what you thought! **


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